FDSOI: Is Cadence, Not Samsung, the Tipping Point?

Peter Clarke, Electronics360 15 May 2014

The announcement that Samsung will license the FDSOI chip manufacturing process as an option at the 28nm node both for foundry customers and for its own chips is, of course, excellent news for FDSOI pioneer STMicroelectronics. It is also good news for fans of technology, and for advocates of choice. It is also excellent news for Soitec, which could use the revenue from volume purchasing of its “smartcut” silicon-on-insulator wafers.

But even better news is the fact that Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) has announced a couple of IP cores suitable for FDSOI production as well as statements to the effect that it has been a long-time supporter of the technology.

Long-time supporter of FDSOI Cadence may have been, but also a darned quiet one until now. Until Samsung stepped forward the reasoning may have been, why upset leading foundry TSMC over something that might not happen.